1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to chip-package technology, and in particular to a chip package and methods for forming the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The chip packaging process is an important step during the fabrication of an electronic product. Chip packages not only protect the chips therein from outer environmental contaminants, but also provide electrical connection paths between electronic elements inside and outside of the chip packages.
A conventional chip package having sensing functions, such as a fingerprint-recognition chip package shown in FIG. 1, is formed by disposing a fingerprint-recognition chip 520 on a printed circuit board 510. Wires 530 are bonded from a contact pad region on an upper surface of the chip 520 to the printed circuit board 510. The fingerprint-recognition chip 520 is then covered by an encapsulant layer 540. The thickness of the encapsulant layer 540 cannot be reduced due to the height of the wires 530 protruding from the upper surface of the chip 520. In order to prevent the sensitivity of the sensing region 523 from being affected by the thick encapsulant layer 540, the side height of the periphery of the packaged fingerprint-recognition chip 520 is higher than that of the sensing region 523 in the center thereof. In addition, since the wires 530 are adjacent to the edges of the fingerprint-recognition chip 520, they easily contact the chip edges during the bonding process which may result in a short circuit or a broken circuit, thereby reducing the yield.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for development of a chip package and methods for forming the same capable of reducing the thickness of the encapsulant layer thereby improving the sensitivity of the chip package and providing a chip package having a flat contacting surface and sufficient protection and structural strength.